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Jesse, Georgia, USA

2012

Jesse is a bartender from Georgia, USA. We met him in Rio where he was also couchsurfing with our host Aline. He was travelling in Brazil for two months with only the clothes on his back and a plastic bag with toiletries. He was the first person we asked the questions and also the person who gave the longest answers. We love the thought that went into his responses.

Where’s your favourite place you’ve travelled to?

I love Granada, Spain. They have these caves, just outside the city, that these gypsies live in. I think I’m going to live there one day, that’s my plan.

If you could have a meal with three people, dead or alive, who would they be?

Winnie the Pooh would be one. It’d be cool to have a meal with Jesus but it wouldn’t be focussed on the meal, and I’d think I’d want to focus on what we were eating too. I wouldn’t want to have a meal with someone like Gandhi as he probably wouldn’t be eating at all. Or even Buddha, as I might feel weird in some way, like he was judging me. I think I’ll go with Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And maybe my Grandpa, the one who died when I was five.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Mine would be the ability to influence every situation. Not for it to be noticeable, but just so that everything went in my favour. It would be like really good luck. When I got the bus, it would arrive on time – that kind of thing – everything would happen just right.

What’s your greatest love?

I think it’s probably people. I love people. But its a love/hate relationship. I love being around people, talking to people and meeting new people, but at the same time I sometimes get pissed off at them too. That’s probably a good sign that they are my greatest love. I think if you love something, you also sometimes feel like you hate it.

What’s your greatest fear?

Right now, my greatest fear is being wrong about what I think. Believing something, doing it and going with it, and then one day finding out that you were wrong: that’s my greatest fear.

Do you have a biggest regret?

No. I regret something every day. I think ‘oh man I should above done that’.

When were you happiest?

I can think of a few times – when I first kissed a girl and when I won first place in a dramatic interpretation competition. But I think my very happiest moment – and this might sound weird – was when I was seven or eight, and I really wanted a pocket knife. I kept asking my mum and she kept saying no. She didn’t want her kid into violence, especially as she was quite new age – but I kept on asking.

When I was young, I could never stay still, I was always doing something. One day she said “Jesse, if you can huddle for five minutes, you can have that pocket knife. You can’t shake around, jump up and down on the bed or move. Just stay still.” So I did it and I got the pocket knife. For me that’s my most important memory of my Mama.